Who issued the card decides where it can live
Apple Wallet displays passes, and a pass is a signed file. The merchant builds it, signs it with a certificate from their Apple Developer account, and Wallet checks that signature the moment you add it. That is why a photo never becomes a pass, and why Wallet has no screen for typing in a card number.
In practice a pass reaches you when you buy something: from the shop's app, as a download on their site, as an email attachment, through a QR code or AirDrop, or right after you pay with Apple Pay at a participating merchant. If no Add to Apple Wallet button turns up anywhere, the shop has not made one.
Google Wallet starts in the same place and then goes one step further. Merchants issue passes there too, and the Android app adds Photo and Everything Else, which build a pass out of a clear picture of a barcode. Both routes are part of the Android app, and neither is available in India.
The barcode itself can be the obstacle
Apple's pass format is picky about codes. It carries QR, PDF417, Aztec and Code 128, with Code 39, Codabar, EAN 13 and Interleaved 2 of 5 added in the newer barcodes field. A pass can hold several formats at once, so in iOS 27 and newer an older device still renders the one it knows.
That list matters for supermarket cards, which are very often plain EAN-13. A merchant who wants one in Wallet has to re-encode the number into a supported format, which is one practical reason plenty of chains keep the card inside their own app instead.
Where each kind of card ends up
| What you have | Apple Wallet | Google Wallet | ScanKeeper |
|---|---|---|---|
| A pass the shop issued | Yes | Yes | No |
| A printed plastic card | No | Yes, on Android | Yes |
| A screenshot of a code | No | Yes, on Android | Yes |
| A coupon or entry code | No | Yes, on Android | Yes |
- Google Wallet builds these from a photo in its Android app, and not in India.
- ScanKeeper creates no .pkpass files, so its cards never appear in Apple Wallet.
Three of those four rows are exactly what ScanKeeper is for.
How to add a card to Apple Wallet
Every route starts with the merchant. What changes is where the pass reaches you.
From a shop's app or website
- Open the merchant's app or the page where your card lives, often under Tickets, Passes or Cards.
- Tap Add to Apple Wallet.
- Tap Add in the upper right, or follow the instructions on screen.
From an email, a link or a QR code
A pass travels well. An issuer can hand it over from their app, park it behind a download link, or attach it to an email, and every one of those opens the same add screen. QR codes and AirDrop work the same way.
When there is no Add to Apple Wallet button
Then the card is not available as a pass, and no iPhone setting changes that. A pass exists only if someone signed one with their own Pass Type ID certificate, which is why a third-party service that emails you a .pkpass file is issuing its own pass, not the shop's.
How to add a card to Google Wallet
From a supported merchant program
- Open the Google Wallet app and tap Add to Wallet, then Loyalty.
- Find or search for the merchant or loyalty program.
- Follow the steps for that program: scan your existing card, find your account, or sign up.
If the merchant does not turn up in that search, the program is not supported and looking harder will not change it. Gift cards work the same way.
Manually, from a photo of the barcode
- Take a clear, high-resolution photo of the card's barcode.
- In the Google Wallet app, tap Add to Wallet, then Photo.
- Select the photo, add a name and a description, then tap Add.
Everything Else does the same job with a bit more reading: it takes a picture or a gallery image, pulls out what it can, and lets you correct the details before saving. Neither route is available in India.
From Gmail or the Google Wallet website
With smart features turned on in Gmail, loyalty cards and tickets from your mail are added automatically, and deleting the email removes the card again. In supported countries, loyalty and gift cards can also be added from the Google Wallet website. Passes there are tied to your Google Account.
What to do with the cards neither wallet takes
This is the pile most people are left with: the bakery card, the gym tag, a coupon from an email two months ago. None of them will ever be a pass. They do have a working barcode, and that is enough.
Scan the printed code
Point the camera at the barcode or QR code on the plastic card. ScanKeeper recognizes the supported formats and keeps the value as it is.
Or import the screenshots you already have
Loyalty codes often arrive as email screenshots. Bulk import takes up to 50 photos at once and reads them on the device.
Give each card a name you will recognize
Check the detected value, name the card the way you think of it, and type a value by hand if a photo was too blurry to read.
Show it at the till
Open the card and expand the code. ScanKeeper fills the screen and raises brightness to 100%, so the reader gets a clean target.
Both routes have a guide of their own, with a screenshot for every step: Scan from an image · Bulk import
ScanKeeper is not a way into Apple Wallet
ScanKeeper does not issue or generate .pkpass files. Nothing saved in it appears in Apple Wallet, and no setting changes that. If a page promises to move your cards into Wallet, it is describing something the pass format does not allow without a signing certificate.
The two apps answer different questions, and both answers are good ones. Wallet holds what a merchant issued and keeps it updated. ScanKeeper holds the codes you captured yourself, offline, in your own order. A boarding pass belongs in Wallet; the bakery card belongs in a scanner app. Keep both.
What to know before you start
Why can't I add my loyalty card to Apple Wallet?
Apple Wallet only shows passes a merchant issued and signed. If the shop never published one for its loyalty program, there is nothing to add, and no iPhone setting changes that. Ask the shop whether they support Apple Wallet passes at all.
Can I photograph a plastic card and put it in Apple Wallet?
No. Wallet has no screen for building a card from a picture or a typed number, and a photo carries no signature for it to check. A scanner app such as ScanKeeper stores the code from that photo instead.
What is a .pkpass file?
It is the format Apple Wallet reads: a bundle with a pass.json description, images and optional translations, signed with a Pass Type ID certificate from an Apple Developer account and renamed from .zip to .pkpass.
Can I add a loyalty card to Google Wallet manually?
On Android, yes. Add to Wallet has a Loyalty entry for supported merchant programs, where you can scan or look up your card, and a Photo entry that turns a clear picture of a barcode into a pass. Neither is available in India.
Do cards saved in ScanKeeper appear in Apple Wallet?
No. ScanKeeper does not issue or generate .pkpass files, so nothing saved in it reaches Apple Wallet. The two apps simply run side by side.
Does ScanKeeper work without an internet connection?
Yes. Cards are stored on the device and recognition runs locally, so a saved code opens with no connection. On iPhone and iPad, iCloud sync to your own account is optional.
Do I need an account to use ScanKeeper?
No. There is no account, no registration and no email address to hand over. The app asks for the camera and the photo library, and nothing else.
What does this look like on Android?
Google Wallet covers more ground there, because it can build a pass from a photo of a barcode. ScanKeeper runs on Android too, with the same scanning, batch import and full-screen display.
Which barcode formats can ScanKeeper store?
QR Code, EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 128, Code 39, Code 93, ITF-14, Codabar, PDF417, Aztec and Data Matrix.